• Just found this thread and in a similar situation to some people on it. I'm having renovations done on my new house which has Artex everywhere. I asked the plasteres to skim over it and overboard the ceiling so not to disturb it. When I arrived home with my young daughter, a cloud of dust(literally) flew out as I opened the door and they told me they had it bring down the ceiling as it wasnt stable enough to be skimmed. My young daughter clearly would have breathed the dust in. I'm trying to quantify the risk in my head, part of me is panicking but the other part thinks that there's so many houses with Artex in the UK that this or similar must happen a lot . I remember as a young kid in the 80s , my parents getting artex and the person mixing it in the house and the cloud of dust being everywhere, so it happened to me.  Anyway, I'm not sure what to think now and have a lot of guilt and worry about what's happened to my daughter.

Hello there. I know how you must be feeling as I was there too a few.months ago. As you say, there are thousands of houses across the UK that used white asbestos in the mix to make the artex ceilings. You'll find almost all houses in 1 street were constructed together with same floor plans and designs. The Close I live on are all the same more or less, and although lots have been renovated since the 60s, Im sure they all have white asbestos in them, including mine.

I panicked too but these homes had residents occupying them for decades. Grew old in these homes and raised children. People dont die from living in a home that contains asbestos. Those working in the mills and construction for years on end and being exposed to the particles daily, yes..im sure there was some risk there but even then, not enough to die from it.

White asbestos is the lowest grade snd different from the blue and brown which has a lot more danger to it if exposed. I found one man on here who commented in the earlier years,  he had some good links and did his own research after talking to some professionals and I really found his input comforting..im trying to repeat what I remember here for you.

Don't worry. Ideally you dont want to be shaving down and disturbing the particles of the artex as that is where the asbestos lies but a brief exposure from what I read is not going to give a death sentence.  This man who was on this thread frequently has commented to a lot of people reassuring them over the months at the time - i dont know who he is but I know he helped calm a lot of ppl, including me.

Asbestos removal companies are scaremongers and obviously there to make.thousands from people who have it in their house. Ultimately this asbestos that's removed only sits on a landfill anyway so I wonder what exposure the employees have there?! I called up frantic too, asking for help as my husband chipped away very slightly at our artex. Really nothing,  but I panicked. I got it tested and it was asbestos (FYI, dont do this because it could affect house price.if you ever sell, as youd need to tell them, its public record for 20yrs I think). Thankfully I just skimmed over all my artex and forgot about it, im sure you will too.

Pls dont worry about your daughter. I have 2 small children and I did too but again remembered these homes were occupied for years with no deaths related to asbestos. If so, they'd knock them down! Some ppl im sure have done worse to their artex and drills holes all through and still the ratio of exposure does not reach the levels needed for any damage.

The only comment would be if you know you have asbestos, just be sure to tell any construction workers so they can make an informed decision before doing work. You dont want any lawsuits of workers saying they weren't told.  Maybe get it in writing too and a signature?

Thanks. I think they scraped away parts of the Artex too so it'll have released a fair bit of dust. I did tell them before they started butthey don't seem to have cared. I'm pretty angry about it. I read the early posts and it does seem it's very low risk (hopefully). There's really nothing I can do now as it's happened and we have to live in the house. This must be a very common occurrence as we've said, this stuff is everywhere and people will be doing renovations and disturbing it all the time.

Hello, I've just found this and I am in a similar but maybe worse? Situation. 2 years ago I was in my old house and it had a huge damp/puddle problem in the kitchen. 

The floor was made of old terracotta tiles, above that it looked like there used to be floor tiles as there was the glue and some possible backing paper left over, then there was a a layer of self levelling concrete. Now because the floor was literally a swimming pool, I pulled up lots of the concrete and the glue and paper backing over a period of 8 months. Now due to stupidity, ADHD, fibromyalgia and pure laziness sometimes I hoovered (bad idea) and sometime I didn't because I knew I was going to come back to it. I lived with this dust for 8 months without ever knowing it could be asbestos. I'm not too worried about the original chipping away as the floor was so wet then, but it did dry out and then the dust would be free. I eventually saw a Reddit post where someone sanded old asbestos floor tiles and then made the connection and panicked, I got the glue and paper and concrete tested and the glue and the paper had chrysotile in. I'm absolutely terrified I've given my self and my partner a death sentence, in 20-30 years and I'm even wondering if there's any point trying to build up a pension anymore. Sometimes I can't sleep or eat for the stress sometimes I'm crying and a mess sometimes I'm fine for months and don't think about it all but it always comes back.

Right now I've a similar issue in my new houses kitchen but not as bad(what may be asbestos tiles) that are ripped and exposed. I've sealed these with PVA but I'm still concerned but not as concerned as I was about the past exposure.

Id really appreciate if someone could give me some reassurance or even just information. I've done far too much googling and there's only results for "1 day exposure" or "I worked in the trades for 30 years".